Story of a Happy Death: Crossing the Bar

Have you found yourself beside a dying person and witnessed her agonizing last moments? Have you considered yourself being on that deathbed one of these days? And are you now preparing for it?

Unsettling, cruel questions, you may say! True. The topic of dying has never been a pleasant conversation piece.

In 1983, I came across the 15 Prayers Revealed by Our Lord to St. Bridget (found in the Pieta Prayer Booklet), also called "The Secret of Happiness". My daughter was then sick with an incurable brain ailment. In a time of extreme distress, the idea of finding the "secret of happiness'' fascinated me. After a while, I realized the prayers were actually meditations on the Passion of the Lord Jesus, usually ending with a request for spiritual graces preparatory to dying, like a true contrition for sins.

I passed on the 15 Prayers to my mother-in-law, Mommy as my husband and I called her. She said she faithfully recited the prayers everyday for several years to the point that she could already memorize certain portions of the 20-minute-long prayers.